Treatment of certain plants for paper-making.



UN lfl llll ill hrii iifilill CLAYTON BEADLE, OF LOIQ'IDUN, ENGLAND.

TREATMENT 6?? CERTAIN PLANTS IEO'JZ- PAPER-ll/IKKIN'G.

No Drawing. Applicati To all 107mm it may concern:

Be it known that E, CLAYTON Bunsen, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing in London, England, have invented a certain new and useful Treatment of Certain Plants for Paper-Waking, of which the following is a specification,

For removing the incrusting and foreign substances and to assist the preparation of the individual fibers of paper making materials it is usual to employ a treatment with alkaline liquor in a closed boiling vessel under pressure in excess of atmospheric pressure and at a temperature above the boiling point, which process precedes the beating operation which has for its object the final preparation of the material in a heater or the like for the felting process.

It has been suggested to combine the beating and boiling operations in a closed vessel while the materials are subject to increased pressure or diminished pressure.

In the few instances of suggested processes in which an open Vessel has been used for the alkaline treatment, ai boiling is prescribed. This is because forzthc production of a bleached material, which has always been ihe object, a boiling temperature and a fairly strong alkaline liquor are essential to attack constituents which would otherwise hinder bleaching, or require wasteful consumption of bleaching liquor at the later stage.

I-have discovered that many green crop plants, particularly when fresh cut, can be converted directly and rapidly, such as in the space of four hours, into stufi eminently fitted for making unbleached paper by subjecting the material to a process that leases in the stuff the organic constituents, particularly parenchyina andsimilar cellular matter, which are usually chemically attacked by the chemicals used, and are washed away from the stud. These constituents form a natural sizing material which makes the finished paper strongwitliout further addition of a sizing material.

The invention consists in subjecting the green crop plant to a treatment with an alkaline liquor at atmospheric pressure at a temperature below the boiling point, while simultaneously distintegrating it into fibers by a beating operation, care being taken, by

Specification of Letters Patent.

:1 filed June 13, 1

I Serial filo. 175,894.

avoiding washing, to retain all the aforesaid organic constituents.

The kinds of plants that are capable of being treated by my process are those of a soft and yielding nature containing fibrous and other constituents suiiiciently loosely at-- tached to be capable of separation during heating it previously or simultaneo usly softened ly contact with alkaline liquor,

qualities, which are rendered conspicuous by the employment of the process, areiof marked commercial utility. There is the further advantage of increase of yieldthus, taking the case of Heclychi'wm coro- -'nm'i'u-m-, when boiled under pressure in the ordinary way and subsequently beaten, it yields per cent. of paper and when submitted to my treatment 90 per cent, show-. ing an increase of 50 er cent.v as a result of the soda not rendering the material soluble.

Many plants, the fibers of which have no alue for paper making, can be reduced by the process. On the other hand, the invention is not applicable to all materials that are suitable for paper makin". ,Thus, materials such as bamboo require more drastic boiling in closed boiling vessels or kiers as at present'adopted; and the process is of no service in the treatment 0t pul Woods. Speaking generally, what may lie called crop plants of a green and -soft nature possessing at the same time valuable papermaking fiber are well suited for treatment by the invention. Examplesof these are the varieties of Hed 0105mm, particularly Hedycitium corona down, and many other members of the order Ziagiberacece and also members of the order Mu-eases such as manila and banana plants.

ioo

' squeezed out so as to retain twice its own I scribed.

weight of solution andthe solution retained by the fiber analyzed for strength. As a rule the greater the soda concentration in the retained liquor, the more suitable the material for treatment by the process. H cdyc'hz'um coronarium treated in this way showed a soda concentration in the retained liquor of 1.20 per cent, or nearly ,5 times that of the original liquor. This may be taken as an example for purposes of comparison, 1 pretended that this test is 1n-.

but it is not fallible.

As an example of the invention the treatment of I! edychz'umcoronam'um may be detroduced, in suitably chopped condition,

preferably in pieces one to four inches hang,

directly into the water in the beater. beater roll is kept off the plate. Thev pieces of material being of suitable length are converted to the condition of stringy half stuff by once passing under the roll. The level of the water in the'beater is kept as far as is practicable and caustic alkali is introducted-say 6 per cent. on the dry weight of the material, and the mass is heated in any suitable known manner. For green .Heclychin m, 80? C. is a suitable temperature and r the duration of heating may be from 2 to l hours.

Although there is advantage in economy of time in treating freshly cut green plants where the material is close at hand to the factory, the treatment is also applicable to plants that have been passed through crushing rollers and dried and otherwise pre pared anddried for shipment. Generally, however, somewhat higher temperature and more alkali"are desirable when dry plants are under treatment. In any case the temperature and time required must be regulated somewhat according to the nature of the raw material and the kind of paper to be produced. The action of the alkali must not proceed so far as to remove certain matters altered and softened by the alkali since these act: as a natural sizing material. Indeed, by a mild treatment of llcdy ch'ium, a parchment-like grcaseproof paper may be prodmtcd without any of the usual sizing materials.

W hen a fairly rough paper is to be made T he stems, freshly cut, may be intime being given, this neutralization does not occur in the beater, it will occurin the stuff chest into which the beaten l' irnay be run directly from the beater andwher'ein it may be further heated ifdesired,but in the massthe material generally retains its heat for a sufficient time to obviate the necessity of further heat being applied. From the stuff chest the stuff may be passed through a refiner on its'passage to the paper machine; Hedychium has been convertedby the above-mentioned process from the freshly cut green stem to a finished paper in a period offour to five hours.

It .is sometimes advantageous to allow action of the alkali to proceed at ordinary tem perature before the heating operation in the beatcr-thus freshly .chrushed Heclychium fiber may be saturated. with alkaline liquor in the cold and kept for some weeks in this condition, whereafter it may be treated in the beater without further addition of alkali andwith or without heating.

This procedure is useful in dealing with a tropical plant to be stored or for export.

The roughly crushed and dried plant may be moistened with say its own weight of a 6 per cent. caustic soda solution and made up into bales in this condition. During transport the alkali does its work, becomes neutralized and on delivery the bales may be opened and charged directly into the beater.

As another example of the application of the invention the treatment of cotton separated from cotton seed hulls may be describcd. The material as received in bales, and

to prevent it from blowing about, is prefera ly wetted by letting it stand. in Water to ,soak up sutlicient moisture, and is then discharged into a beater or breaker and the extraneous insoluble matter, such as dust, is largely mechanically removed by Washing with a washing drum. After washing, the alkali is added and the whole mass heated for a few l1ours, wl1eii the beater roll may with advantage" be made to beat lightly the material.

letting down into the stuff-chest.

To accelerate the action of the alkali I The heating is continued until I the material is in a, suitable condition for find it advantageous in some cases to add an excess of alkali and, after the material is sulliciently softened, to wash out the liquor into anotherbeater, ready for treatment, adding to the second beater suflici'ent fresh alkali to make. up -for-what is retained in the first heater, in which the softening acare needed and the alkali also is substantially neutralized by the time the beatingoperation is completed,

-Having thus described the nature of the said invention and the best means I know a of carrying the same into practical elfect,-

1. A process for preparing certain fibrous materials for making unbleached paper, consisting in subjecting the material to a treatment with analkaline liquor at atmospheric pressure-and at a temperature below the boiling point while simultaneously disintegrating it into fibers by a beating operation, but so as to retain all the organic constituents commonly removed by a washing process.

A process for preparing certain fibrous 'niaterials for paper-making, consisting in rnolstenlng the materlal with an alkaline liquor, storing the moistened material and finally heating the moistened" material at atmospheric pressure and at a temperature below the boiling point while it is being disintegrated in a beater.

3. In preparing certain fibrous materials for paper-zmaking, the step which consists in moistening the material with an alkaline liquor and storing it in 'bales, such as during transport. I

l. A process for preparing Hedychium corona/ um for making unbleachedpaper,

consisting in chopping the stems to form short pieces, introducing the pieces lnto a hot alkaline liquor, and agitating the mass until the material is ready for the paper machine.

As a new article of-commerce a bale of In testimony whereof I have signed my I name to this specification. in the presence of the two subscribing witnesses.

CLAYTON BEADLE.

Vlitnesses:

' ALICE J. FLEMING, B. DERHAM. 

